A Radiant Dawn
by Zaradi
Summary: A newly minted summoner with prodigal talent from an uncertain past is thrown into an emotional trial-by-fire. With multiple factions vying to add his talents to their arsenal of weapons, Alayn Durand must be careful who he trusts. Even those who he has grown up with have their own motives. When someone comes to you with knowledge of your past, who can you really trust? oc x harem
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One:**

_The light pitter-patter of rain streamed down the body of a young child, lying in the middle of a country road. It was midday, but the shower felt just as down-trodden as if it were in the dead of night. The boy laid there, alive but unmoving, lacking the basic strength to even stand. He had been lying there for what felt like an eternity. Maybe it was an eternity; he wasn't quite sure how he got there. All he knew is that all he was capable of doing was just lying there, accepting the gravity of his fate, and wait for darkness to envelope him. At least it was a peaceful way to go. The light dancing of rain across his skin was soothing, and he finally decided to just close his eyes and wait for nothingness._

"_Heeeeeey! Hey you!"_

_His eyes opened to a bath of golden hair and pale, cream colored skin. Bright blue eyes gazed down into his soft, gray ones. "Hi. I'm Lux, what's your name?" the girl asked brightly, voice radiating enthusiasm and energy. She was a ball of light hovering between him and darkness. He opened his mouth to try and reply, but no sound came out. The girl's head tilted slightly to the side, possibly from confusion, but her positivity never faltered. "You look like you could use a bath. Come on. I'll take you to my home."_

"Heeeeeey! Hey you!"

The shout made Alayn jump slightly, startled by the sudden rush of noise. The light pitter-patter of rain was ever-present, this time beating against the roof of his carriage instead of his skin. It was midday as well, and the rain was more of a cooling blanket to a warm spring day rather than an icy touch. Alayn averted his gaze from the window to the other person in the carriage, a bright blonde girl with cream-colored skin and bright blue eyes. Her face shone with its usual burst of bright joy and energy, but it was also covered in a face that he knew all too well: concern. "Jeeze, you always look so distant whenever it rains. What do you think about?" she asked, a slight tinge of worry to her voice. Her concern for his well-being was always refreshing, and he gave her a reassuring smile. "It's nothing, Luxanna. I'm okay."

Lux immediately began to pout, punching his arm lightly. "Alayn! I thought I asked you not to call me that. Even if I'm a champion and you're a summoner, that doesn't mean we can't still be friends." She whined, just causing Alayn to laugh. He paused though, his mind elsewhere in thought. "Hey Lux, why'd your family take me in that day?" he asked carefully. The question gave Lux a moment of pause. "Because I asked them to. I had to use pretty much every favor that my family owed me to convince them to not just turn you over to an orphanage, but I did." She replied back somberly, clearly remembering back to that day as well. But her sober expression didn't survive long, as it was replaced by her usual mirth only moments later. "But it wasn't all bad! We had each other, which made everything okay!" she made sure to add. Alayn nodded in affirmation. "Right. I just wasn't aware it took that much convincing to get your parents to allow me to stay. It must've been difficult." Lux just shrugged, beaming her usual radiant warmth. "Nothing worthwhile is ever easy, though. Right?" she observed, which caught Alayn off-guard. He was hardly expecting such a profound reply, but it was also a nice thought to consider.

Lux's attention was drawn away from the conversation and back out through the window as a rather large building came into view. "Ah! We're almost there! You can see the Institute now. Isn't it so amazing?" she mused, excited to be back. Alayn looked out of the window at the approaching building and couldn't help be amazed himself. The sheer size alone was soimpressively large that it could easily house thousands of people at a time. It would certainly be a different kind of environment than he was used to in Demacia. But he was ready for any challenge that would be thrown his way. He was a Summoner in the League of Legends. If he could achieve that, what couldn't he do?

A door opened into a small, dark room. The person who opened the door quickly closed it, re-consuming the room in black. There was a pause of silence. "The new summoner Lux spoke of has arrived." A voice spoke. Another pause ensued. "What do you think?" a different voice spoke. "His entrance exam scores suggest a high level of competency as well as innate talent. His understanding of strategy is strong. He's someone we should be interested in." A pause followed. "I didn't ask for the numbers. I asked for your opinion." The second voice spoke again, an annoyed tone coating his voice. "My opinion? He's heralded as the second coming of one of the greatest summoners in history. The evidence we have right now supports these rumors. If they're anything to go off of, this is someone we cannot afford to lose." The first voice explained, not fazed by the disrespect from before. A long pause followed. "Agreed. See to it that we don't lose him, then. Personally." The second voice instructed. The door opened again, then closed, returning the room to a silent darkness.

**Hey everyone! Welcome to A Radiant Dawn! I hope that you stick around for the journey because this should be getting really fun, really fast. I hope to be making regular, weekly updates to this story, potentially earlier if I can pump out chapters fast enough. However, at the bare minimum, I'm looking to upload a new chapter ever Friday at least. A chapter a week sounds reasonable, right? **

**Of course my writing is probably bad, so do you have any comments or criticisms you want to bring up? Any ideas you wanna offer or just wanna drop in to say hey? Leave me a review! I always welcome feedback of any kind, since I'm always looking to improve my writing. Don't be afraid to speak your mind, my ego can certainly take a few hits :3**

**With that all said and done, have a great Friday, and for some of you, a great Spring Break!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two:**

Stepping out of the carriage, Alayn stood in front of the massive Institute of War for the first time and was awestruck by the reality of where he was now. He was just some random kid, but he was now a Summoner in the League of Legends, a highly prestigious position that many could only dream of being able to one day do. But he was here. This was actually happening. This wasn't a dream. It was a joy and a burden at the same time. The spotlight was really on him now, and he had to show the world what he was capable of. And he certainly felt like he was up for the challenge.

A loud yawn prompted Alayn to look behind him as he watched Lux exit the carriage, stretching out a bit to relieve the cramped muscles from the carriage ride. The rain had since stopped, and the way the sun now shone down on her caused her skin to practically shine with radiance, giving her the appearance of a goddess. It was a great sight to behold. Lux finished yawning and looked at him, a red hue tinting her cheeks when she noticed his staring. "Alayn, why are you looking at me like that? There's not something on my face is there?" she said, suddenly clawing at her hair and pressing down her shirt in an attempt to fix her nearly flawless appearance already, which made Alayn bust out with side-clutching laughter.

"Luxanna, dear, you look fine. Alayn was just noticing how stunning you look in the sunlight."

Now it was Alayn's turn to blush in embarrassment, as Lux's cheeks only burned a brighter red as they both turned their heads to see who the third party was. Lux seemed to recognize her right away. "Oh! Lady Shyvana! My apologies, I didn't know you were there." She hurriedly apologized, bowing slightly in respect to her superior. Upon hearing the name, Alayn recognized the half-dragon from a few private parties between the Crownguards and the King's family. He bowed as well. "Lady Shyvana. I don't recall if we've ever been properly introduced. My name is Alayn Durand. It's an honor to make your acquaintance." He spoke formally and respectfully, earning a slight chuckle from the half-dragon. "Take it easy, Summoner. There's no need for formalities here. Any friend of Lux's is most certainly a friend of mine." She spoke. Alayn relaxed slightly after hearing that, surprised by the very informal atmosphere of the Institute so far. Was it always like this?

"Also, Lux, good job on hyping up our friend Alayn here. You have everyone thinking he's the next Senpai." Shyvana told Lux, which brought an absolutely horrified look to her face. "Senpai? What does that mean?" Alayn asked, which only added to the horror spelled out on Lux's face. Shyvana chuckled at her expression before turning to address Alayn. "You wouldn't recognize him by the name Senpai, since it's just a term of endearment that the champions use, but senpai was the legendary summoner known as Faker. It appears you have quite the reputation already, Summoner." Shyvana mused, very entertained by this all. Lux looked like she was about to pass out from sheer embarrassment.

Before I had time to react, Shyvana raised a finger to pause me. "To chat is not the only reason I came down, although I did want to meet someone regarded so highly as a potential legendary summoner. I came as a messanger for the Board, since I was coming this way anyway. They wanted to see you when you got in." Alayn raised his eyebrow. "The Board? That sounds like a capital letter there. Who are they?" He asked curiously. Lux hopped in place, clearly excited. "Ohmygod! You're going to see the Summoning Board! That's so cool! They're the summoners who control who gets to be a Summoner and what rank the Summoners are. They're so influential in the Institute!" Lux gushed with enthusiasm, unable to contain her joy. Alayn shrugged, a slight smile on his face. "Well, might as well not keep them waiting. Lux? Lady Shyvana? Are you coming with me?" Lux nodded energetically, but Shyvana shook her head. "No, I agreed to meet the Prince for lunch today. It was a pleasure talking with you though, Alayn. I hope we have a chance to talk again sometime." Shyvana said, bowing her head slightly before turning and walking back inside.

The Hall of the Summoners Board was a grand place. Massive double doors open into an expansive hall, tall ceiling and wide walls. A dark, granite walkway leads up to a centerpiece of three ornate chairs situated in a semi-circle. On them sat three summoners, decorated in ornate, dark green robes. Alayn strode to them, Lux following by his side. When the pair reached the trio of chairs, Alayn bowed respectfully. The three summoners all nodded. "Welcome, Alayn." The summoner in the center seat spoke. "Congratulations on becoming a Summoner. I'm known as Phreak. To my right is Jatt and to my left is Riv. The three of us form the Summoner's Board. It's our responsibility to rank summoners fairly, according to their skill level, so that they compete against other summoners that share their skill level." Phreak explained, eliciting a nod from Alayn. "Understood. What do you need me to do?" Alayn asked. "You've already done part of it. The admissions tests that you took to be granted a place as a Summoner gives us preliminary information on your potential capabilities as a Summoner. You scored exceptionally well on those tests; it was one of the best scores we've seen in years. Now all we need to see from you is what you can do in practice, rather than on paper." Jatt explained. Riv nodded in agreement. "Tomorrow we've scheduled a practice match for you. It's a simple one-on-one fight with the standard rules: each summoner will command one champion against each other. The first champion to kill the other champion, kill one hundred minions, or destroy the opposing champion's turret will win the matchup. We have not selected a champion for you, so you can decide that one on your own. If you can't choose one by the time the match is supposed to start, we will choose one for you." Riv explained, getting another nod from Alayn. "Remember, the outcome of the match is not what is important, rather the level of skill you exhibit. If you show a lot of skill, you will be placed highly. If you perform poorly, you will be placed poorly. Regardless of whether you win or lose, your overall performance is what we will be watching." Jatt explained, which eased some of the stress from Alayn's mind. He imagined that losing would still reflect poorly on his overall abilities, but it wouldn't completely throw him in the slammer. "I assume you still would like to get settled in. I'm sure Lady Luxanna can show you to your room. Get some rest and come prepared to give your all." Phreak spoke, dismissing the pair with a nod.

...

A door opened to a dark room, enough light slipping in to highlight the figure out a single person slipping in, just in time for the door to close again, encapsulating the room in utter darkness. "So what's the news on our new prodigal summoner?" a voice spoke out of the darkness. "He's having his practice match tomorrow. Standard one versus one format." A second voice spoke. There was a pause of silence. "I assume that means you have a plan?" the first voice spoke again. "Of course I have a plan." The second voice replied back, an arrogant tone coating each word. There was another pause, followed by a slight chuckle. "Good. I will ask nothing more then. I trust you to be successful. Do not fail me, though." The first voice warned. The door opened once more, just long enough for the sole figure to slip out, returning the room to utter darkness once again.

...

**Hey there guys! I hope you're enjoying your summer break so far! I've just been swimming in ideas as of late so I decided to get the next chapter out there now instead of waiting for a week so that I can just keep going.**

**Of course I want to hear from you guys though, since the only real reason I'm writing this is so that other people can enjoy the story just as much as I do. Do you have any comments or criticisms you want to bring up? Any ideas you wanna offer or just wanna drop in to say hey? Leave me a review! I always welcome feedback of any kind, since I'm always looking to improve my writing.**

**Hope you're having a good weekend and a good Spring Break! I'll see you guys again in another chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three:**

"Come on, Alayn! It's almost lunchtime! You'll get to meet everyone."

They had just gotten out of the hearing with the Summoner's Board and Lux was already dragging Alayn around sight-seeing. They had gone and watched a match on Summoner's Rift, a narrow victory for the purple team after a very bloody fight, as well as looked out over the Crystal Scar, the Twisted Treeline, as well as The Howling Abyss.

"Wait, these places are scattered all over Runeterra. How can we actually be walking to them when one is near the Kalamanda Desert and one is in the middle of the Freljord?" Alayn had asked, curious about how he could've covered the distance from the Crystal Scar and the Howling Abyss on foot over the course of five minutes. Lux laughed at the comment. "We're not actually there, silly. The windows we look out over the arenas are actually just enhanced viewing screens, imprinted with whatever the arena currently looks like. That's how most people watch the matches since they can't actually be there. They've been working on opening up a smaller arena for one-on-one matches, but it's planned to be near a whole lot of lava under the surface and the depth plus the lava is interfering with the signals, so they haven't made the map public yet." Lux explained as they walked from the Twisted Treeline viewing area toward the commons area. It made sense to Alayn; lord knows the havoc that could happen were there to be a live audience watching a League match on-site; one misplaced spell or shot and there goes a few dozen people. Alayn nodded in agreement to his own thought; definitely much safer to have remote viewing capabilities.

"Come on, you slow-poke! They'll all be done eating by the time we get there at this rate!" Lux whined, grabbing Alayn's arm and dragging him through the halls. Summoners of all kinds congregated in the halls, their robes distinguishing their rank from one another.

The corridors eventually opened up into an expansive hall area, tables covering most of the floor area. A few aisles of tables and trays were set out to one side, each tray covered in different types of foods and cuisines from all around the world. Most of the tables were occupied by Summoners, with the vast majority of one rank congregating together in an area. There was a small clearing toward the center area of tables, though, and there sat the champions. It was in that direction that Lux was dragging him. She finally stopped in front of one table, clearing her throat audibly to attract the attention of those sitting there.

"May I present to all my friends, the ONE, the ONLY, Alayn Durand!" she announced dramatically. The table collectively let out a massive sigh, except for one voice who squealed in excitement. "Oh, so this is the fabled man who's supposed to be able to defeat any team single-handedly? I must say, he's rather cute. I do hope you're not planning on hogging him to yourself Lux!" the voice mewled, sliding out of her chair and gracefully floating her way to his side. She was wearing a red robe with a white trim around the edges that barely covered her chest and bottom. What looked like a fluffy, snow-white train was actually individual fox-tails, nine to be exact. And on top of her head were two black fox ears. Whether they were a costume or actually part of her person was hard to tell, as her long, black hair covered up any signs of there being a headband. The girl wrapped her arms around his side with a slight "Nyah!" and looked up at his eyes playfully. "Y'know, you can play with the ears if you'd like. I don't mind." She purred, giving a slight wink to emphasize the point.

The entire table laughed, aside from Lux, whose face was covered with a mixture of shock, embarrassment, and absolute horror to join in on the mirth. "I can't believe you Ahri! Can you be decent for once in your entire life? And I'm not even hogging him! Not like I would hog him! It's not even like that! Gah!" Lux complained while she peeled the she-fox off of an entirely red-faced Alayn.

Once the two fighting females composed themselves again, Lux returned to Alayn's side, patting down her ruffled hair to be perfectly in place again. "Right, so this is Caitlyn," Lux began introducing, first pointing to a slender brunette, peacefully eating her meal. She nodded politely, clearing her mouth of food before speaking. "Lux has said many good things about you. It's a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance." Caitlyn greeted, a polite smile touching her lips. "This is Akali," Lux continued greeting, gesturing to a raven-haired girl who, he had to admit, he didn't notice until Lux pointed her out. His slight surprise got a smile from Akali. "It's okay, it takes a while for people to start noticing me. Being a ninja tends to make you unnoticeable. I'm sure if you're a friend of Lux's that you'll catch on sooner or later." Akali explained, which made sense to Alayn. She seemed friendly enough, which was the only real thing that mattered, he supposed. A grumble came from Lux to end off the list. "And, of course, you just met Ahri…" Lux mumbled, still upset over Ahri's sudden outburst. Ahri just grinned deviously, pleased with her antics. "Don't listen to li'l ol' Goldielocks over there. I know how to play fair. Especially since everything's fair in love and war." She spoke, giving another wink. Alayn's face returned to its previous crimson color and Lux groaned in frustration.

"Anyway!" she shouted, trying to get the topic off of things that didn't turn her color the same color of Ahri's skimpy dress. "Time to actually talk. The Board scheduled his practice match for tomorrow. He needs a Champion to use." Lux informed. The only one who looked slightly surprised was Ahri. The three others shared a look, and just started laughing. "What!?" Lux asked, looking exasperated and thoroughly lost. The three of them gave Lux a mystified look, as if they were having an entire conversation through a single look. Lux's expression changed from one of anger, to disbelief, to shock. Lux looked at Alayn, who looked utterly confused at the entire non-verbal exchange, then back at the group. Caitlyn rested her hand in her palm, which was the last straw for Alayn. "Okay, can someone explain to me what is going on? I don't speak face." The frustration from Alayn got a giggle from Ahri and a sigh from Akali. "Okay Alayn. When you learned about the practice match tomorrow, right after you were finished with the meeting who was the first person that came to your mind who you would ask to be your champion for the match?" Caitlyn asked. Alayn paused for a second. "Well, Lux of course." Lux immediately whipped her head around to stare at Alayn in disbelief. Caitlyn didn't pause, however. "And after you met the three of us? Who did you think you wanted to ask?" Caitlyn continued. Alayn didn't think for very long on that one. "Lux, still. What's with all these questions?" Alayn asked. Lux's cheeks adopted a light pink hue. Caitlyn gave a slow clap in response to the second answer. "Congratulations, Lux. He was gonna ask you from the very start."

Lux's face was one of utter disbelief. "Wait, you didn't think I was going to ask you? Who else would I want to do this with?" Alayn asked, thoroughly bewildered by Lux's shock. Lux was his best friend, the one person in the Institute that he had complete and full trust in. If he was going to do a one-on-one for the first time, he wanted to do it with someone he trusted. A smile twitched on Lux's lips. "Then I suppose there's a few things we need to discuss before tomorrow then. I know a quiet place where we can discuss skill usage and itemization." Lux suggested, gesturing outwards toward the corridor. Alayn nodded. "After you, of course."

…

**Hey guys! Thanks for reading through chapter three!**

**I'm still on spring break, but there's not really a whole lot for me to do. I'm on a vacation and during the nights when there's just boat-loads of down-time all I have to do is write (which is fine I'm just swimming in ideas for this story right now so I could keep writing for a long time to come). But maybe I should be doing something more productive with my spring break…**

**-shrug- Who cares. **

**Anyway, since I know my writing probably sucks, I'd love to hear what you guys have to say. ****Do you have any comments or criticisms you want to bring up? Any ideas you wanna offer or just wanna drop in to say hey? Leave me a review! I always welcome feedback of any kind, since I'm always looking to improve my writing.**

**Anyway, I'll see you guys for chapter four!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

"Hey Alayn. Are you nervous?"

"A little. Are you?"

"Yeah, a little."

It was the day of Alayn's practice match, and the day was full of unknowns. For one he didn't exactly understand how the match would work. For two, he didn't know who he would be facing against. For three, neither he nor Lux could figure out what Champion they would be facing. It made planning a little rough because they had to plan around a plethora of different possibilities.

"_How are we going to win this, Alayn? We don't even know what we're going up against." Lux asked Alayn, laying back down on a couch with an exasperated sigh. It had been three hours of planning that hadn't yielded much other than more questions: who were they facing, who was going to be controlling the champion, what was the optimal build path to use? None of which had been answered yet. "It may not matter." Alayn said, pulling up a digital information screen. "Your abilities are some of the longest ranged abilities in the game. Not the longest, mind you, but comparable. We could just try to ride it out and hit the 100 mark first, relying on your range and your shield to keep you safe." Lux thought about it for a minute before frowning. "None of my abilities really pack any kind of punch until later levels, or until I get some items to use that boost my ability power. If I get jumped on in the early levels, we could lose straight out." Lux said, concerned about losing well before hitting the 100 mark. Alayn pulled up a map of the Arena, Howling Abyss, and studied it for a minute. "We could let the minion wave push toward us. We would have the safety of the turret protecting us, which would do tons of damage to any champion trying to kill you under it early on. We also have the two health packets here," he said, pointing to the side of the turret, "As well as one a little further behind the turret. Those provide whoever picks them up with health and mana, which should keep you sustained through the early game. From there we should be able to get you some more levels, which should mean that getting a higher creep-score shouldn't be too hard." Alayn finished, dismissing the image of the map and looking to Lux, who was still frowning. "Is something wrong?" Alayn asked, concerned. Lux quickly shook her head. "No, no. I'm just thinking that if you want to do that kind of plan, why not just ask Gragas or Ziggs or Orianna or even Karthus to be your champion for this? They all have better long-range abilities than mine so you'd do a lot better with the—" she started to say, but was abruptly interrupted when Alayn lightly slapped the back of her head. Lux looked stun for a moment, before turning to Alayn with rage in her eyes. "What the hell Alayn!? Why'd you do that?" she yelled into the face of utter tranquility in Alayn. "Because we've already been over this answer before. I asked you because you're you: you're my friend, my closest friend, and the only person here I really trust. It's a no-brainer that I would ask you to do this with me." Alayn spoke simply. Lux paused, the rage leaving her eyes as she realized he was actually being serious about what he was saying. "Besides, you underestimate yourself so much. Maybe winning this will give you a little more confidence." Alayn suggested, laughing a bit._

"Alayn! Alayn you goof, we're here!"

Lux's yelling snapped him out of his thoughts as they arrived at the Summoning Room. It was a small room, actually, with ten chairs scattered around the back perimeter of the room. The chairs were paired together in two's by a series of wires and cables that connected one chair to the other. Every chair had cabling that ran from the chair to a central spot on the floor, and down into the floor, possibly to another room. The chairs had multiple panels around the arms as well as ports on the arm, leg, and chest areas that looked like it would let out constraints to keep people in the chairs. Why they would need to stay in the chairs was beyond his understanding.

A Summoner walked up to him and Lux. "You must be the Summoner who's getting a practice match today. Come in, come in. Lady Luxanna, a pleasure as well." He greeted them, gesturing them to enter. "I'm Kobe, and I'm gonna be the tech running the match. I'll be the one that makes sure that everything goes smoothly on a technical end and the match can be decided by skill not who has the better processor. Anyway, go ahead and get situated in one of the seats and we can get started." Alayn and Lux both got seated in one of the chairs, and Kobe moved between the two of them, attaching different sensors to different areas of the body. "Alright Alayn, since this is your first time in a match there's a few things I need to ask you to calibrate the system. First off, are you right handed or left handed?" Kobe asked. "Right handed." Came Alayn's simple reply. "Alright. Your preferred pain settings?" Kobe asked, which confused Alayn. "Pain settings?" Kobe simply nodded. "A lot of the sensors and nodes I attached to you do more than just transmit data from you to Lux. They can also receive data from her inbound to you. This data can include pain that she experiences, we can then transfer it onto you as well. Certain summoners like to at least feel a part of what their summoner is going through, so they have it on. Others prefer not to have it on, so they leave it off. I have to offer it to everyone." Kobe explained, which made Alayn think a bit. Of course what someone was capable of was limited by how they were physically feeling. And if he were going to make accurate calls that Lux could execute, he would need to understand how she was physically feeling at the time as well…

"Turn them on to full." Alayn said, which surprised Lux. "Alayn, you don't have to do that!" she complained. Alayn simply shrugged. "I could hardly asked you to run ten miles if you have a broken leg. I need to understand how you're feeling if I'm going to be a good summoner for you." Alayn explained. Lux visibly didn't agree with his decision, but she didn't voice any further complaints. There was a few moments of silence before Kobe walked back up to the chairs. He pulled a thumb tack out of his pocket and promptly roughly poked Lux's leg with it.

Alayn's leg spiked in pain. "Ow!" they both said in unison, which just got a nod out of Kobe. "Pain sensors are functioning properly. You're all set. I'll get you guys strapped in and we can get started." Kobe spoke, punching a few buttons before straps extended out of the sides of the chair, restraining his arms, legs, and his chest. "The restraints are only a safety measure, as we've had incidents of summoners accidently falling out of their chairs and injuring themselves on the fall and causing problems in the game. Once the game is over the straps will be immediately removed." Kobe said, and the game started.

Alayn opened his eyes, the howling winds and freezing cold of the Freljord shocking his system. What shocked him even more was the realization that he was looking through Lux's eyes, and he had to control himself a bit. _"Alayn, can you hear me?" _he heard Lux's voice echoing in his mind. He regained his calm before replying. _"Yeah, I hear you. You ready?" _he asked. Lux laughed. _"As ready as I'll ever be. What should I buy to start with?" _Lux asked. _"Just what we discussed. Get the three Doran's Rings and the health potions. We'll play this game safe from afar." _Lux purchased the items and began trotting down the lane, waiting for the minions to spawn. The announcer announced the minions spawning, and the game really began. Lux watched the enemy minions approach the center of the map, and another figure approaching with then. Crimson red hair, dark clothing, twin blades in her hands and daggers strapped to multiple different parts of her body. Lux groaned. _"Great. We're facing Katarina." _Lux said sarcastically. Alayn simply nodded. It was a skill-matchup, with both having outplay potential on the other. It was close to what he expected, but it was an interesting choice to face against. _"Remember, just play it safe. Your abilities have a longer range than Katarina's so you should be safe so long as you just play back. If she tries jumping on you, just shield yourself and bind her and run back." _He instructed, which got a nod from Lux as she began focusing on last-hitting the minions.

The game was fairly slow for the first few minutes as both were just content with last hitting minions and getting a few more levels under their belts. Katarina was the first to start playing aggressively. She threw out her bouncing dagger at Lux, before Shunpo'ing onto her and spinning her blades out in a circle, sending stabs of pain down both of their bodies. Lux reacted quickly, though, shooting a snare of light at Katarina and binding her in place. Lux blasted the Noxian assassin a few times with bursts of light before retreating a ways back, outside of range for retaliation. This game of cat and mouse continued for a while, each party drinking a health potion to recover from the damage. While Katarina's aggression was usually meaning she had a slight upper-hand in fights, her aggression meant that she was missing more minions than Lux was, which was giving Lux an edge in creep score. It was starting to move toward the later stages of the match, and Lux was within a wave of minions of hitting the 100 mark. Katarina was not that close. _"Katarina may try to go for a all-in fight. Be careful." _Alayn warned. Lux just nodded in reply.

Katarina made the first move. Lux had just used an ability to clear out a few minions before Katarina jumped on her, throwing out her daggers and Shunpo'ing on top of her. "Die!" she cursed before spinning rapidly in circles, daggers flying out rapidly in her deadly Death Lotus. Each dagger was a stab of fire to Alayn and Lux, but Lux reacted calmly through the pain. She threw out her binding, snaring Katarina under the tower as the tower began to pummel the Noxian with turret shots. With Katarina bound to one spot, Lux thrust her wand forward, willing it to levitate on its own as it began to spin with magic. The wand emanated with a bright glow as Lux poured the last of her mana reserves into casting her ultimate. "DEMACIA!" she shouted, throwing her Final Spark straight into the immobile Katarina, blasting her straight into the wall.

"FIRST BLOOD!" the announcer called out automatically, as the victory imaged came into Alayn's view. He did it; he won his placement match. The Howling Abyss disappeared from view and the Summoning Room came back into reality. The chair constraints were released and Alayn shot out of it, ecstatic with his victory. Lux jumped up as well, running to Alayn and hugging him tightly, laughing all the while.

…

A door opened into a dark room, remaining open just long enough for a single figure to slip in quietly before it shut again, encasing the room in darkness. There was a pause. "Alayn won his match. The plan ran into complications." A voice said. Another pause followed. "I thought I was clear that you were not to fail me." A second voice spoke, clearly angered. "We have a different plan! One that's sure not to fail. It will take longer, though, and it will be a delicate process." The first voice spoke, quickly and trying to hide the failure in a new plan. There was a silence, an eerie, deathly silence. "Explain it to me." The second voice said, and said nothing as the first voice explains the plan. There was a pause, one that seemed to stretch on for all eternity. "Alright. Do it. I expect regular updates on progress. I need results soon. I can't risk him aligning with someone else. If we cannot get him for ourselves, we must ensure that no one else gets him. Understood?" the second voice spoke. "Of course. I won't fail you again." The first voice spoke. The second voice laughed. "I hope so. If you failed again, you may share his fate." The door opened, and the figure slipped back out.

…

**Welcome back guys! Thanks for reading through Chapter Four. I hope you're enjoying the story so far. To start with I want to apologize. I know that today is Saturday. I know I promised uploads every Friday and that I didn't upload anything yesterday. I've been traveling a lot this past week and on Friday I landed in a hotel that was charging 15 bucks for a day of wifi. So I had no wifi to upload anything. I'M SORRY FORGIVE ME D: But now I'm waiting for my flight back home and thank god for free airport wifi so here you guys go!**

**Anyway, as always I'm interested in your feedback. ****Do you have any comments or criticisms you want to bring up? Any ideas you wanna offer or just wanna drop in to say hey? Leave me a review! I always welcome feedback of any kind, since I'm always looking to improve my writing.**

**Anyway, thanks for coming and I'll see you guys in Chapter Five!**


	5. Chapter 5

"What!? What do you mean my placement matches aren't over yet?"

Alayn sat at the lunch table, a dismayed look on his face, as Lux and Caitlyn were trying to comfort him. After the first victory in the one-on-one against Katarina, Alayn was sure that he would become a full-fledged summoner after that, able to play normal games with the rest of the summoners. It appeared, however, that this was not the case.

"Alayn, it won't be that bad. They just want to see how you'll react to a normal game, in order to be able to place you more accurately. Working well with other summoners is part of what makes a good summoner a great summoner, and they can't really see that in a one-on-one matchup. It'll be fine!" Lux said, placing a soft hand on his shoulder to reassure the young summoner. The sherriff nodded in agreement.

"It really won't be that bad. They're probably going to place you against other summoners in their placement matches, so it's not like you're going to be going up against legends or something. You should have an easy time of things." Caitlyn noted, which seemed to get Alayn's spirits back up a little bit.

"I suppose you're right…" he mumbled, looking back up a little bit and shaking his head, clearing his mind of any doubts. "Well, there's no use in worrying too much about it right now. Is there any way to find out which summoners I'll be playing with? It might be a good idea to start planning for the match now." He asked, looking at the pair of champions trying to comfort him to find both of them shaking their heads. Alayn's confidence sunk again, hiding his head down in the crook of his arms. "Can I at least choose who my champion will be?"

"Nope. From what I heard they selected a champion for you already." Akali said, appearing in front of where Alayn was laying his head. The arrival of an unexpected third voice made Alayn jump in surprise, which elicited confused looks from the rest of them. "Alayn? Are you okay? Akali's been here this entire time…"

Alayn could only stare, wide-eyed in shock and befuddlement, trying to wonder how a girl had been sitting in front of his face the entire time without him being able to physically know she was there. "But…but…how...she…but…" Alayn sputtered out, causing the rest of the table to burst out in laughter.

"Ahem."

The clearing of a throat behind the group caused them to cease their merriment for a moment to see who wanted their attention. Caitlyn arched an eyebrow in surprise, Alayn's mouth drooped slightly, and Lux's facial expressions darkened into one of brooding rage. Only Akali remained emotionless.

"Katarina." Lux practically spat out, half-heartedly trying to mask her dislike for the redhead and failing to do so. "What do you want?"

The redhead smiled a little, flipping her hair out of her eyes, a cocky smirk on her lips. Unlike the rest of the group, Katarina wasn't dressed in the normal champion attire, but was instead dressed more casually. A leather jacket went over her dark tank top. Skin tight jeans accentuated the slenderness of her legs, with black boots completing the "badass" image. "Now, Lux, no need to be so hostile. I just came to greet the summoner who I would be playing for in his placement matches."

The rest of the group could only stare in shock. Even Akali looked surprised by this information. "You're-you're…" Lux sputtered out, half enraged by the smugness of Katarina's expression, half confused by the fact they were pairing a Demacian summoner with a Noxian champion.

Alayn, surprisingly, was the first one to recover from the shock. He stood up, facing the Noxian assassin, and extended his hand to her. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Ms. Du Couteau. My name is Alayn. Let's both try to do well out on the Rift!" Alayn greeted formally in a pleasant tone.

Katarina smiled widely, which only caused Lux's rage to burn even brighter. "Wow, and such a polite soul too. I do hope you don't plan on hogging him all the time. I wouldn't mind getting to know him a little better." Katarina spoke, a smooth, sultry tone coating her voice, which only further pushed Lux to her breaking point. Lux looked as if she wanted to tackle the redhead, to beat her to a pulp with her staff of light, but the restraining arms of Caitlyn and Akali wrapped around the petite blonde before she could move and inch and began dragging her back and away, Lux screaming insults and threats the entire way.

Katarina laughed a little, clearly amused by the spectacle. Alayn rubbed the back of his neck embarrassingly, now alone with the assassin. "I'm sorry about Lux. She can be protective of those she cares about." Alayn apologized. Katarina shook her head, however, dismissing it. "It's quite alright. I expected as much. Anyway, would you want to talk strategy someplace quiet? We do have a placement match coming up soon." Alayn nodded, gesturing toward the exit of the cafeteria. "Of course. We can talk privately in my room so that we can plan."

Katarina grinned. "After you, then."

After the rummaging of keys and silent cursing to the idiocy of the door's lock, Alayn unlocked the door to his room and walked in, holding the door open for Katarina. "Feel free to make yourself at home." Alayn offered politely, watching Katarina saunter into the room, eyeing the amenities of the suite, before giving a slight shrug. "A simple life you lead, summoner. You would think your Demacian upbringing would make you a little softer, but you're room is practically spartan."

Alayn couldn't really blame her for reaching that conclusion; the room _was _rather simple. A small bed was pressed up against the back corner of the room, a nightstand next to it with a simple alarm clock. A small table was set up to another side of the room, near where a small refrigerator/freezer unit was set up. A little countertop space held a small bowl of fruit, a sink with a water faucet, and a microwave, as well as a small stove for cooking. The rest of the room was filled by a couch with a coffee table, situated in front of a small viewing screen where one could watch TV or live broadcast of matches.

Alayn simply shrugged, reaching into his refrigerator and pulling out a bottle of water, extending it out in the direction of where Katarina stood. "I didn't exactly have a whole lot of money on my own, so I couldn't afford anything nicer. Besides, anything nicer wouldn't have a whole lot of use to it since most of my time I won't even be in here. Want something to drink?" He offered, receiving a shake of the head from Katarina.

Alayn walked over to the couch, sitting down and taking a sip of his water before pulling up a display of text. "Hang on, let me pull up my research on your abilities." Alayn said, navigating through the different champions in the League. Katarina looked at him, then the screen he was reading, in interest. "You have research on me?" she asked curiously.

Alayn simply nodded. "Of course. You're abilities, their scaling in power and damage with certain items, the ranges of your abilities, laning tactics, how to play against certain lane opponents to maximize your strengths and protect your weaknesses, ability and item combinations to maximize your damage potential. Everything I could need to get a grasp on how you work on the Rift. I have the same thing for every champion. I need to know everything I can in order to be the best summoner I can be."

Katarina just stared at the summoner, unsure of how to react. Alayn looked back at her, confused as to her confusion. "What? What's that look for?" Alayn asked, making Katarina shake her head quickly to clear the look from her face. "Nothing, nothing. Anyway, let's get started, shall we?"

***prepares shock paddles* LIVE GOD DANGIT LIVE! I FORBID YOU FROM DYING ON ME!**

**Oh, hai, sorry. I know I was gone for a while and that this story was kiiiiiinda forgotten about but I'M BACK NOW! No more inactivity! More chapters (even though this one was kinda cruddy -.-) are coming your way!**


	6. Chapter 6

Alayn Durand pressed one hand against his eyes, rubbing it down his face in a vain attempt to wipe the sleep from his eyes. The studying session on how to summon Katarina had not gone as he had expected…

"_But really, though, I think the best plan for lane would just be to farm and then roam to other lanes and snowball fr—" _

_Alayn had a split second to see Katarina whip her hand quickly to the side to roll out of the way of an incoming dagger, pinning itself into the wall where his neck had been only mere moments ago. Alayn could only look at the knife stuck in the wall, in disbelief that what just occurred actually happened, before looking at the redhead in shock. "What the hell!? Are you trying to kill me?" He asked, which got a laugh from the assassin. _

"_No, not really. If I were, you wouldn't be alive. You have to have good reflexes if you want to be my summoner. If you couldn't dodge something as blatant and easy-to-predict as that knife, then there's no way we'd be compatible." Katarina reasoned simply, the cold logic used by the Noxian absolutely astonishing the young summoner. _

"_Okay…but there are a lot better, not to mention safer, ways to test my reflexes. And yet you resort to trying to turn me into a living pincushion." Alayn started to protest, but shook his head. "Nevermind, it's not important. Just try not to actually kill me next time." Alayn said instead, satisfying himself with solely a dissatisfied 'Hmph!' from the Noxian assassin before returning to his notes. "Anyway, the game plan should be fairly simple. You're laning phase is rather weak since you don't have any crowd control and your melee attack range makes it rather hard to effectively trade with other mid lane champions without getting too chunked of health to make it worth it. The game plan should simply be farm until you hit level six and get an item under your belt, and then go roam. In terms of itemization, your kit revolves around getting kills to reset your cooldowns, meaning that getting the first kill credit is essential. Rather than building for overall damage to multiple people and survivability, you should build to kill your first target as quickly as possible, to earn the reset and go from there. Thoughts?" Alayn finished, getting a satisfied nod from Katarina. _

"_You've put more effort into learning how to properly summon me than the past three slackers who summoned me combined. Consider me impressed." Alayn nodded, closing the screen that held his notes before rising to his feet. He had spent a few hours in Katarina's room, and he was confident that Lux had prepared an interrogation of questions for him when he returned to the Demacian quarters. _

"_Thanks. Now if you would excuse me, I'd love to get some sleep before the next match, and it would be nice to get out of here before you try to—" Alayn started to say, but ducked under a second knife thrown by the redhead again. It stuck into the doorway that Alayn had just tried to open. Alayn stood back up, blinking a few times and staring at the knife suck in the door. "Before you try to kill me again…" Alayn finished sourly. _

"_That last knife wasn't for you~." Katarina spoke out as Alayn opened the door._

_Alayn had to jump back to avoid having a blonde mess collapse into his legs and knock him over. Alayn's mouth gaped in shock, unsure why he was looking at Lux, collapsed over in a pile at his feet. "L-Lux? What are you doing here?" Alayn asked. Lux looked up, crimson red cheeks complimented by the deer in headlights eyes, obviously incredibly embarrassed upon getting discovered. "I-I-I-I…" was all Lux could stutter, which made the Noxian laugh in amusement. _

"_Oh, it's as clear as day why she's here. And yet you cannot see…" Katarina mused to herself, walking up next to the summoner. The Noxian redhead stood up on her tip-toes, planting a light peck on Alayn's cheek, before returning to her natural height with a grin. "Interesting. Sleep well, summoner. You'll need it to perform at your best tomorrow."_

Alayn suppressed a yawn as he pushed open the doors to the summoning chambers. The room was exactly identical in set-up, the only difference this time being that the rest of the ten chairs were occupied with champions and summoners. Toward one side of the room two summoners were doing their best to keep Lucian and Thresh from killing each other before the match even started. Closer to the other side of the room, Jarvan IV sat ready in his chair, regal in his patience, and a few novice summoners were busy trying to install a larger chair for Alistar to sit in.

Katarina stood by two unoccupied chairs, chatting with Kobe. The redhead turned and waved Alayn over. "Hello, Alayn. Are you ready for your match today?" Kobe greeted politely, to which Alayn nodded.

"As ready as I can ever be. Is the summoning process the same here as it was for the other game?" Alayn asked, going ahead and sitting down in the chair. "Yes. Unless there are any settings you would like to change from last game, the summoning process is identical." Kobe answered, attaching a few sensors between the summoner and champion before nodding. "You two are all set up now. The game should be starting soon. Good luck and have fun." Kobe finished, giving the pair a smile before walking off to finalize things with the other summoners and champions.

Alayn let out a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves as he closed his eyes, the rush of the game starting drawing him out of his physical form.

He opened his eyes after a few moments, a new setting greeting his senses. The five champions were standing on a platform, overlooking a base situated next to a large forest. Towers covered the three entrances into the base. Alayn smiled; he was on Summoner's Rift.

"_Now that you're chidish fantasies are being fulfilled, can we get to lane now?" _Katarina teased lightly, reminding him that they were sharing thoughts and communications. The jab got a light laugh from Alayn as he checked the champion rosters to see who they were playing against. _"We're laning against Orianna. Get Boots of Speed and potions. You need to be able to sustain through the lane and avoid her harassment." _Alayn instructed. Katarina nodded in agreement and handed the shop keeper the coins she started with, in return for the items they wanted.

Katarina brushed a few strands of her crimson hair out of her eyes, jogging to the front of the middle lane and drawing her two daggers from their scabbards. They had a lot longer of blades than a normal knife did, and behaved more like short swords than actual knives, but were still balanced for throwing if need be.

It didn't take long for the announcer to announce that the minions had spawned and for the mindless minions to charge down the lane, engaging in combat with the opposing side's minions. Katarina followed behind, making sure to stand a bit away from the actual combat, only entering the fray to hit a dying enemy minion with a swipe from her weapons to earn the credit for the kill. Orianna came to lane, throwing clockwork components at minions and commanding her ball forward toward Katarina.

Katarina jumped backwards, avoiding the ball from impacting her and tried to walk around it. The ball simply shifted over, however, and prevented Katarina from just walking by it. _"Let the wave push back into your tower and farm there. The tower should keep you safe from harass and she won't be able to zone you as easily under it."_ Alayn instructed quickly. The Noxian simply nodded, flipping back gracefully and letting the enemy minions come closer to the tower. The tower detected the presence of opposing forces, whirring to life and firing off large blasts of energy at the opposing minions. These tower shots forced Katarina to strain a bit, timing her attacks with the tower hits and allied minions to try and ensure the last hit on every minion.

"_Okay, Jarvan's coming to gank Orianna. Wait for him to go in first then follow him up." _Alayn instructed, getting a simple nod from Katarina as she spun to the side to avoid Orianna's ball. Katarina watched the Demacian standard drop down from the sky, landing to Orianna's right as Jarvan came charging in from the left, ramming his shoulder into the Clockwork entity and sending her flying into the air. Katarina was charging in to follow before Orianna even hit the ground, hitting her falling body with throwing daggers and assaulting her with blows as soon as she landed.

Orianna, recovering finally from the gank, summoned her ball back to her to provide her with a shield before vanishing in a golden puff of smoke, reappearing a short, but far enough, distance away from the pair of champions. Katarina made a motion to pursue, but a gauntlet from Jarvan stopped her. "She's too far out now. Come with me to the Dragon, we have the numbers advantage with Orianna too low to fight."

"_It's a good idea. After that you and Jarvan can gank bottom and hopefully get some kills." _Alayn agreed mentally, only getting a dissatisfied grunt from the Noxian. _"I bet I could've killed her if you flashed me after her…" _Katarina complained, only getting a laugh from her summoner. _"With what abilities? All of your abilities were on cooldown, and mean spirited words aren't enough to kill her while she's under her tower. Besides, you'll hit level six off of the dragon and that will make getting kills easier." _Alayn countered. Katarina simply grumbled and followed the Demacian prince down the river.

The pair met up with Thresh and Lucian at the entrance to the Dragon Pit, and together the four of them began assaulting the dragon. The dragon was a fearsome foe, but put against the majority of their team, it didn't stand a chance. The announcer made the announcement that their team had slain the dragon, and Jarvan laughed. "No contest whatsoever!"

Thresh simply shrugged and began running back to the bottom lane. Lucian looked at the remaining two, gesturing toward the bottom lane with his head. "Come on, the enemy pushed up to our tower to try and take it down while we were killing the dragon. Let's make them regret that decision."

Jarvan and Katarina both nodded, the redhead eager to stain her blades with the blood of the enemy team for once, as the three of them followed their support down the river.

Thresh smiled, watching Tristana and Nami trying desperately to take down their turret, as the rest of the team joined the Chain Warden in the brush. "Hmm, what soul shall I reap today?" Thresh asked himself out loud, spinning his hook a few times before casting it out, watching it land onto Nami, wrapping around her aquatic body and start slowly pulling her back a few times. Thresh just shrugged. 'Fish sticks. Delicious. Anyone care for a ride?" Thresh asked, dropping his lantern before flinging himself down the line toward where Nami and Tristana were.

"_Take the lantern in. Jarvan and Lucian have their own ways of following up." _Alayn instructed. Katarina nodded, grabbing the lantern and letting it pull her along to where Thresh just landed. Katarina cocked her arm back, preparing to let loose dozens and dozens of deadly daggers—

Then she couldn't move. The Noxian assassin pounded in rage at the bubble prison that now prevented her from attacking her targets. _"It's still fine. The second it lets you out I'm flashing you back into range. Jarvan and Lucian are right behind you. This is your chance." _Alayn comforted. The bubble quickly popped afterwards, and Katarina leapt forward, leaving a golden puff of dust behind her. "Come back here!" Katarina shouted, shunpo'ing forward to cover the remaining distance to the fleeing enemies. Katarina laughed as she began spinning around in circles, letting the circular momentum propel dozens and dozens of knives outwards at Tristana and Nami. The pair tried to keep running, but that plan was doomed to failure.

"DEMACIA!" came the shout from Jarvan as he leapt up into the air, slamming his heavy spear into the ground and raising the earth around them. Tristana pointed her cannon into the ground, firing a heavy shot downwards to propel herself up into the air and over the obstacle. Nami, on the other hand, was trapped, and the knives kept impacting the Tidecaller until she stopped moving.

Tristana was still running as the announcer called out the first kill of the game, but Alayn wasn't finished. _"Keep going. You can get the Tristana." _Katarina nodded, feeling the resurgence of her energy coming back to her as she looked over to Jarvan. "Jarvan! Your standard!" she said, pointing to the fleeing Yordle. Jarvan looked confused for a moment, but quickly figured out the Noxian's plan. Jarvan threw his standard as far as he could out of the cataclysm, and Katarina leapt with all of her might, using her Shunpo jump to cover the distance to the standard and get back in range of the fleeing gunner. Katarina flipped through the air, throwing dagger after dagger down onto Tristana, and watched as all of them found their mark.

"_Double kill!" _the announcer called, as Katarina used the now-reset cooldowns to jump back to the standard and out of range of the enemy turret.

Alayn smiled as his vision returned to being his own, his body awakening again in the Summoning Chambers. The game ended a few minutes after the dragon fight in bottom, the enemy team surrendering after another three successive teamfight losses. In that time Katarina had racked up another six kills. It was a successful game, and another victory in a placement match. Once the restraints were released, Alayn got up and felt Katarina pounce on him from behind, her arms wrapping around his neck in a hug. "Y'know, summoner, that might've been the best anyone has ever done summoning me in a long time. I may just steal you away for future games."

Alayn laughed at the mock-threat. "It was a lot of fun summoning you. I'd love to work with you more in the future." Katarina grinned.

"I sure hope so. I'll talk to you later, Alayn." Katarina spoke, leaving him with another light peck on the cheek before she walked out of the summoning chambers. Alayn's eyes followed the Noxian and her swaying hips out the door, blinking a few times to try and get his fluttering heart under control.

**Hello again! Sorry for the long time in between uploads, but right now it's kind of challenging for me to find times that I can actually write out chapters and get them uploaded. Little bit of a busy schedule, but I'm doing my best to work around it.**

**Anyway, I'd love to hear what you guys think about the story thus far. Any comments, criticisms or suggestions? Just wanna pop in and say hi? Feel free to drop me a review! Any kind of feedback helps me improve as a writer, which means better stuff for you guys to read!**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you guys next time!**


	7. Chapter 7

**What is this!? An Author's Note at the top of the chapter instead of at the bottom?! HAS THE ENTIRE WORLD GONE MAD!?**

**Nah, I just wanted to give a shout-out to the guest reviewer who left a long, constructive review for me. As much as I realize he was pointing out things that he thought I should've put in but didn't, it makes me really happy that there are readers out there who are interested enough in the series to want to see me improve and want to give me suggestions of things that I should be doing instead to make the series better. Like, literally, I can't thank that guy/girl enough. Keep them coming!**

Alayn sighed, walking out of the summoning room, breathing in the calm, serene quiet of the hallway. He closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath—

"ALAYN!"

A small form crashed into Alayn's back, letting out a small "Nyah~." as the form impacted, making him stumble forward to regain his balance. "What the—" Alayn said, looking behind him to see a pair of black fox ears pointing up at him. Ahri looked up at him, grinning. "You did well out there. Kind of want to know how you would handle me, if you want to try~." Ahri asked, giving a seductive smile and winking.

"Ahri! Stop being so perverted!" Lux screamed, putting her full effort into trying to peel the fox off of the summoner.

Alayn just stared in disbelief as right outside of the summoning room was what could only be described as a mini living room. A flat-screen TV was set up with a coffee table in front of it. A couch and two recliners were set up behind the coffee table, with Caitlyn lounging in one of the recliners, Akali with her feet kicked up on the couch. Ahri, having been forcefully removed from Alayn's back, frowned before walking over to the nearby mini-refrigerator and pulling out a bottle of water.

"What is…all of…this?" Alayn said, gesturing to the new living room in the middle of a hallway. Lux blushed slightly, embarrassed by the question. "Well, we wanted to be the first ones to congratulate you on your game after you got out…but we also wanted to watch it and not just sit out here doing nothing while we waited for you. And if we're watching a game we want to be comfortable…" Lux started to explain, absent-mindedly kicking at nothing on distract herself.

"None of that actually matters since someone beat us to congratulating him. Look at this." Akali said, having apparently moved from the couch to right next to Alayn's face without him realizing it. The ninja pointed a finger at a spot on Alayn's cheek that had s pair of slightly pink marks in the shape of lips. "Lip gloss." Akali concluded, getting a blush from Alayn as he remembered Katarina's goodbye kiss on the cheek.

Lux must have come to the same conclusion, her face darkening slightly from her normal sunny disposition. "That's the second time she's kissed you…" she said quietly, almost so quietly that Alayn didn't hear.

"L-Lux?" Alayn was almost afraid to ask, because the darkness quickly turned into what looked like suppressed rage.

"Okay Alayn, I know you do some silly things sometimes, but this is borderline dumb. Katarina is an assassin. A Noxian assassin no less. A Noxian assassin who specializes in killing Demacians! And you're wanting to-to…to…gah!" Lux shouted in frustration, shaking her red-stained face and walking off down the hall.

Alayn looked over to Caitlyn and Akali, who were both already trying to get all of the furniture they lugged out packed away again, leaving Alayn to stand in the emotional wreckage, trying to figure out what exactly just happened.

Katarina weaved her way down the hallways, doing her best not to make eye-contact with anyone, to become one with the crowd and avoid being noticed. As a woman with bright red hair it was difficult to make yourself be anonymous in a crowd, but thankfully there were bigger freak-shows in the League of Legends than her.

The noxian assassin worked her way down the halls, exiting the main area of the Institute and entering a service tunnel, scanning quickly to make sure that no one was following her. Her footsteps were fast, yet soft, making no noise to betray the direction she was traveling. Katarina passed one door, two doors, before pausing at the third door on her left. She looked around a few times, making sure that there was absolutely no one following her. After making sure that she hadn't picked up a tail, she pushed open the door a crack, sliding through the small opening before letting the door shut behind her.

The room she entered was dark, pitch black, just as she expected. There was no signs telling her that there was someone else in the room with her, yet she knew that she was not alone.

"You're late." Came a voice from the shadows, icy and emotionless.

"The price you pay for quality work." Katarina said simply, a slight tinge of arrogance coating her voice. The stillness in the room made Katarina fidget nervously in place, shifting from one foot to another. She had no reason to really feel uncomfortable about her assignment, but the quiet and the darkness was starting to make her feel uncomfortable for some reason.

"So? Give me an update on things with the boy." The voice asked again.

"Things are progressing well. We should have him within our grasp in a few weeks." Katarina informed, doing her best to relax. Something kept nagging at her, gnawing away at the back of her mind. Her entire mission was going along smoothly, but something felt off about the entire thing. Something felt…wrong.

"Good. Keep up the good work. I expect to be meeting him myself soon, with his word to work for us. Remember, we can't allow them to get his support. You know what that will cost us. What it will cost you."

Katarina nodded. She was well aware of what the stakes of the situation were, and what would happen were she to fail. She quickly nodded her head, reaffirming her resolve. "Of course, I won't fai—"

_BANG!_

The assassin quickly turned around, a knife in her hand, as the loud noise of someone hitting the door disturbed the secret meeting. Muffled voices came from outside the door, which brought a silent curse from the redhead's lips. It seemed the quiet, secret meeting place wasn't so quiet or secret anymore.

Lux paced around the cafeteria, fuming with anger. She couldn't believe how dense Alayn was being. He was getting absolutely smitten with a Noxian assassin who wanted nothing better than the downfall of Demacia! And while she wasn't sure if Alayn was actually Demacian, he was practically raised entirely in Demacia! That made Alayn a potential target for a Noxian Assassin who was trained to _kill Demacians!_ The fact that he was still getting involved with her, despite everything Lux had ever done for him, despite the way that she—

Lux shook her head furiously, clearing the thoughts from her head. That had nothing to do with why she was mad at Alayn!

Lux sighed, sitting down at an empty table, hungry but too frustrated to eat, when a brief glimpse of crimson passed in front of her, weaving its way through a crowd of people. This piqued Lux's interest. _"Where is Katarina off to in such a hurry?" _Lux wondered, already off of her feet and following the Noxian. Katarina was setting a quick pace, and Lux soon began panting and breathing heavily from trying to keep up.

But Lux kept up. Lux rounded a corner just to see the assassin duck into a service tunnel. Lux quickly followed, making sure to stay far enough back to not be noticed by the Noxian. Lux watched her walk into one of the rooms, closing the door behind her. "What the heck…" Lux muttered to herself as she approached the door, pressing her ear up against the wood to hear what was going on.

_So? Give me an update on things with the boy._

"Things are progressing well. We should have him within our grasp in a few weeks." Lux heard Katarina say, forcing Lux to cover her mouth so as to not make a noise that would betray her presence. Who else could they be talking about but Alayn!?

"Lux? What are you doing back here?" came a voice from behind Lux that made her jump in shock. Lux turned to see the figure of Jatt standing in the hallway, giving Lux a confused look.

Lux blushed in embarrassment, rubbing her left arm anxiously and giving the summoner a nervous laugh. "Oh, nothing! I was just, uh, having some alone time! Yeah! I could really use some alone time!" Lux said, nervously laughing and backpedalling away from the summoner. With a quick turn of the handle, the Lady of Luminosity left the service tunnel, walking with conviction toward the Demacian dorms.

She had to warn Alayn. Something wasn't right.

**Holy god that took forever and a half!**

**Hey guys! Sorry this chapter took so long .-. Between work and school-related stuff, as well as a little bit of writer's block, it's taken a bit to get this chapter out. Hopefully this doesn't happen again…haha…hahaha…..*gulp***

**Anyway, let me know what you think about the story so far and drop me a review. Or if you just wanna say hi or something, drop me a review anyway. **


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